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Some of our clients have not held back in expressing their disbelief and puzzlement over the fact that we have moved our major plugins from Envato. This post is to explain what happened and why we had to make the move.<\/span><\/p>\n [\/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”TLDR” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:20|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Montserrat%3Aregular%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n On January 11, 2017, a (supposedly) U.S.A-based company named<\/span> K2-service.com<\/span><\/a> published a plugin called <\/span>Visual Product Designer\/Customizer for Woocommerce<\/b> on Envato.<\/span><\/p>\n It has the exact features available in our plugin called<\/span> Woocommerce Product Configurator<\/i><\/b><\/a> which was published on October 10, 2014, on the same site, Envato ( A marketplace for top digital services and assets).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Since Envato did little or nothing to right this wrong, we decided to move forward and stay safe by leaving the marketplace.<\/span> We are not the first to do it<\/span><\/a> and we are certainly not going to be the last. What matters is moving forward after the break-up, and ensuring that we continue to satisfy our past, present, and future clients.<\/span><\/p>\n [\/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”IN THE BEGINNING” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:20|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Montserrat%3Aregular%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n After months of hard work to develop the <\/span>Woocommerce Product Configurator<\/i><\/b> plugin, additional months to test the plugin with the help of beta testers, we were finally able to release a product that responds perfectly to customer needs. It was 3 years of hard work, errors and trials, testing, fixing bugs and making the plugin the best on the market. We published it on October 10, 2014, on Envato\u2019s CodeCanyon Marketplace.<\/span><\/p>\n One day a customer named <\/span>Erik Galan <\/b>bought our Woocommerce Product Configurator plugin and asked us for a personalization service. So we asked him to open a ticket on our site and from then on we exchanged approximately up to 60 messages. The request was completed successfully and both parties parted ways on good terms.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n [\/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”THE DISCOVERY” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:20|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Montserrat%3Aregular%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n A few months later, another prospective client sent us a mail to ask us why our plugin, demo, and content were so similar to the one advertised by a company named <\/span>K2-Service<\/b> on the same marketplace we were selling ours! We obviously did some digging and found out that the plugin mentioned was related to Erik Galan. We did a little comparison just to be sure it was indeed our plugin that was used in the demo user interface (UI).<\/span><\/p>\n Below is a shot of our plugin’s UI and his.<\/span><\/p>\n [\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”28184″ img_size=”full”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n If you\u2019re a developer who understands source code, you can see the similarities are too much – here are some screenshots that were taken back then to compare both source code.<\/span> Click to view.<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n So we sent an email to Envato, the company that owns the marketplace CodeCanyon, to inform them about what\u2019s going on and get their help to remove the plugin from their marketplace.<\/span><\/p>\n [\/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”WHAT IS COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:20|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Montserrat%3Aregular%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n According to Envato, Copyright is typically infringed if a work protected by copyright, or a \u201csubstantial part\u201d of it, is used without permission in one of the ways exclusively reserved to the copyright owner.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0But in some countries, there are special exceptions which allow copyright materials to be used without it being an infringement \u2013 for example, \u201cfair use\u201d exceptions.<\/span><\/p>\n When assessing whether a part of someone else\u2019s work that you wish to use is a \u201csubstantial part\u201d you need to consider whether it is an important, essential or distinctive part. The part does not have to be a large part to be \u201csubstantial.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n It is the \u201cquality\u201d of the part, not the \u201cquantity\u201d that is important. Even if you change or add to a part of someone else\u2019s work, you can infringe copyright if the part that you use is an important, essential or distinctive part of the original work.<\/span><\/p>\n A person who infringes copyright can be sued by the copyright owner and taken to court. A court can order a range of things, including that the infringer pays compensation and pay the copyright owner\u2019s costs. In some cases, a person who infringes copyright can be charged and can be ordered to pay a fine, or in serious cases, can be imprisoned. You can<\/span> read more here<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Furthermore, Envato has a market content policy that provides information regarding copyright and intellectual property policies both for Envato market authors and buyers and the process to follow when you believe someone is using your copyrighted content without permission.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n [\/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”HOW ENVATO LET US DOWN” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:20|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Montserrat%3Aregular%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n What surprised us was that\u00a0 Envato ( having all the power to give a fair judgment of the situation) wasn\u2019t helpful in the resolution process. They asked us to issue a DCMA takedown notice which we did. After receiving the notice, they disabled K2\u2019s plugin for a few days and then <\/span>put it back on CodeCanyon<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n They put it back online after Erik Galan sent them an email in which <\/span>he recognized that he used our entire source code and the work we did for him<\/span> but renamed it as a new plugin. So according to him, this is not our plugin anymore <\/span>simply because he <\/span><\/i>renamed<\/i><\/b> it<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Envato simply agreed and advised us to hire a lawyer to sue him.<\/span><\/p>\n We didn\u2019t hide the fact that we\u2019re a company based in Cotonou, Benin (West Africa), and that engaging in such a battle was not going to be an easy task due to the geographical distance and the money required to fight this. Rather than uphold their word and stand by what is right, Envato simply ignored us. They did not care.<\/span><\/p>\n [\/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:20|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Montserrat%3Aregular%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n What\u2019s the point of fighting using all the money we earned in the process when there are better ways? We decided to step back and think about what else to do.<\/span><\/p>\n Why did we choose Envato in the first place? Envato demonstrated to the world that developers who used their marketplace would:<\/span><\/p>\n [\/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”STARK REALITY” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:20|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Montserrat%3Aregular%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n After being an author on Envato\u2019s Code Canyon since 2012, we realized that:<\/span><\/p>\n [\/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”MOVING AWAY FROM ENVATO” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:20|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Montserrat%3Aregular%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n We simply decided to move our growth, our products and our customers up our priority list, and to focus on the things unique to us that our competitors cannot steal.<\/span><\/p>\n We took the following steps:<\/span><\/p>\n [\/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”MOVING ACTUALLY PAID OFF!” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:20|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Montserrat%3Aregular%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n Moving our major plugins away from Envato was the best thing that happened to us.<\/span><\/p>\n We are now able to channel more money towards providing better support for our existing clients and also spend more time developing and making our products better.<\/span><\/p>\n We are getting 20 times more sales than K2 Service\u2019s configurator and we are discovering that his clients are heading our way after finding out how shady the company\u2019s practices were. Our customers’ feedback also shows that we are better than Erik Galan\u2019s K2-service in terms of service delivery, regular updates, customization delivery, and support provision.<\/span><\/p>\n [\/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”WHERE TO FIND US” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:20|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Montserrat%3Aregular%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n You can now purchase our bestselling Woocommerce plugins on our website<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n\n
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